Another Superman Story
by Thalassina
Summary: It all started with a lab explosion. Annabeth never thought she would soon get sucked into a swirl of superheroes and archenemies, a mess of hunger for power, and a city's constant fear of menace. (Not to mention that curious and mysterious thing called young love...) Superhero AU. Percabeth.


**GUYS I'm back xD I'm currently working on this story in German and wanted so badly to translate it xD Yes, I'm crazy. But hey, I love languages and writing, and everybody needs some hobby :P**

 **I had the idea for this story for a long time now, and a few weeks ago I finally started writing it down. (Currently having some writer's block, but that doesn't affect you fellow English readers at all, because the German chapters are already up to seven. ^^)**

 **Enough with the rambling, here you go.**

* * *

"Have you read that?"

Annabeth Chase was sitting in the city library, on the desk in front of her reams of books, and in her hand an old newspaper, maybe six months old.

Across from her a boy with black hair, which looked like it had never seen a comb before, and sea green eyes typed something on his phone absentmindedly. At the sound of Annabeth's voice he raised his eyes and darted an are-you-serious-look at her.

Percy Jackson had never in his life read a text or book that was longer than fifty pages. And even for that he'd needed ages. Partly his dyslexia had to be blamed, partly his ADHD. Besides, he rather hung around at the park, played basketball or went skating, or swam in the pool or bathing lake until public bathing hours were over. He only went to the library when he needed help doing homework, or wanted to spend some time with his best friend since kindergarten, Annabeth Chase. She would spend most of her time there, doing her homework and reading books, mainly about architecture. She wanted to become an architect someday.

Now she showed him some newspaper article, which she had found in one of the books from the pile next to her.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to decipher the letters, but they tumbled over like helter-skelter, although he was doing his best. He always was when it came to something Annabeth was giving him to read.

At the sight of him she had to laugh in spite of herself. His eyebrows got all scrunched together and she could see the concentration in his eyes. Her gaze got caught in them. Their color always reminded her of the sea. Not the sea at the cost of Long Island, that was muddy and smudgy. No, his eyes resembled the Mediterranean Sea near Greece. When she was little she'd been there once, with her mother. Before she left her.

Quickly, she shoved the thoughts of her away and fell for those hypnotizing eyes again. When she looked into them, she always felt like drowning in the depths of the ocean, amid smooth waves, and she almost smelled the fresh and salty air. Butterflies cavorted inside her stomach and she didn't notice that Percy had given up reading the article, until he called her name the third time, earning himself a glare from the lady at the reception desk.

"Huh?"

He grinned crookedly at her, making her heart skip a beat.

She hated it. Hated that she had these feelings for her best friend of all people. Hated that she just wasn't able to do anything against that. But before anything else she hated that he would never like her in this way. He was always treating her like a friend, like that girl he befriended back then in kindergarten, after she'd helped him find his action figurine with the blinking lightning bolt in its hand, which Luke Castellan had hid on purpose in order to devil him. And besides, why should he like her of all people, when there were dozens of girls who were matching him a thousand times better, and who were not to mention prettier and much more interesting than her.

"I quit," Percy said and leaned back in his chair. "Can't you just tell me what's written there?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "All right, seaweed brain, here you go. Half a year ago there apparently has happened an accident in a lab. Some mixtures of chemicals had gotten messed up maybe, and the whole lab blew up. It seems there are no survivors, but there are still two people missing that have been inside the building when it happened. A businessman, who probably had an appointment with one of the professors, and a visitor. I wonder why we haven't heard anything about that on the news. I guess there was something not authorized for general public to hear about."

"Two people, you say?" Percy had a peculiar expression in his eyes that Annabeth couldn't read.

"Yeah, as I said. A businessman and a visitor."

He frowned, like he had expected something else. All of a sudden he sprang to his feet and thereby overbalanced his chair.

"Sorry, gotta go. Have to... umm do stuff. See ya tomorrow!"

Baffled, Annabeth stared after him when he grabbed his bag, briefly turned around to wave her goodbye, and hurried out of the library.

Seaweed brain, she thought, what are you up to again?

Recently, he had been acting strangely. Sometimes he seemed totally at distance, and when she tried to talk to him about that he merely shrugged and pretended there wasn't anything.

Sometimes he suddenly jumped up, exclaimed he had to take care of something important, and for the rest of the day no one saw him again. The next morning he then seemed as if he had taken part in the NYC marathon.

She glanced at the article one last time, before she put the newspaper away and opened one of the books she still wanted to read, and soon she was so absorbed she didn't notice that the library would soon be closing for today.

When she eventually had a look at the clock it already showed 10 pm. Every visitor was already gone, except for a young man in a corner. He was wearing a long, black coat whose collar masked half of his face, and his right eye was covered by an eye patch. His hands were buried in his coat's pockets, a black hat was falling in his face and his left eye was frantically looking around. At second glance his body's whole posture seemed tensed up, as if he was nervously awaiting something or someone.

Annabeth frowned. The weather could hardly be the reason for his choice of clothing, what with the 77°F outside. Despite her indeed present curiosity, she didn't want to know what he was doing here, to be honest.

She quickly gathered up her stuff and put the books back to their shelves, but right when she was returning to her seat she saw the shady guy scoot out through the door.

Whatever, she thought, sitting down on a chair and burying her nose in a book that was laying nearby, probably forgotten to be put back.

If she waited a few minutes, the guy would be gone. Hopefully. She did not feel like being followed home by a dubious man.

While thinking about it, she hoped Percy would have stayed. Or somebody would have let her know when it was getting dark outside.

The lady from behind the desk was already gone. The caretaker was most probably the only one left in the building, disposing waste somewhere, and about to lock the doors after that.

Technically, she should feel uneasy about being alone in a huge building, and going home alone in the darkness (although it was NYC and thus well-lit at night as well, but there were still those dim subway stations and trains that she rather stayed away from at night). But in here, amid all those books, it was different. In here, she felt at ease. Yet as a child she had loved hiding amid her father's book shelves and reading, until she's read all of his books at least three times. Back then she'd been barely ten years old and her step-mom and dad finally allowed her to go to town all by herself. It was just the library after all and she went and came back at daytime.

Which it wasn't anymore on this particular warm night in May. She was soon-to-be seventeen, but her parents were still sensitive when it came to that topic. She had to tell them every time that Percy or Thalia were escorting here, truth about that not necessarily given. In their eyes, Percy was admittedly an often childish but nevertheless reliable boy, and Thalia, her other best friend, knew all sorts of martial arts. That she, like Percy, wasn't exactly enjoying being near so many books, Annabeth certainly didn't tell her parents. Actually, it was only Percy who accompanied her anyway, in case she didn't go alone at all. Like today.

By now the man must be gone, she thought and lifted her head from the book she had had her nose in, literally. She loved the scent of paper, it calmed her and had a drug-like effect on her. (Like Percy's, but she would never ever admit that.)

As soon as her nose was in the library air again, she did not smell books and wood around her though.

She wrinkled her nose. This smell... was familiar. Last time she'd smelled it had been... at a campfire...

Annabeth had sat with her back to the door and when she now jumped up and swirled around, she could already see the black smoke coming from under the huge, thick door leading to the entrance hall.

Immediately, she ran towards it, teared it open – and stood in a sea of fire.

The flames rapidly raced past her into the big room, thankful for the new oxygen.

Panicked, Annabeth turned around. All the books would get destroyed by the fire – just like her, if she didn't stop thinking about the (so precious!) books soon and moved her butt to the next fire exit!

The blazing flames guzzled greedily through wood and paper; they grew and thrived by leaps and bones, they spitted and crackled, as if they were uttering a never ending battle cry.

Frantically, Annabeth tried to remember where the fire doors were located, but the heat and the poisonous smoke imprisoned her, making her cough and choke, which decreased her power of concentration enormously, and now she began to tremble as well.

"HEELP!" she cried out as loud as possible, and automatically inhaled a huge amount of toxic gas, whereupon her throat felt like burning too.

She bent over and broke out in a new direction. If she stayed stooped, she wouldn't inhale so much fume, that she already learned years ago. But it made her feel even smaller and the flames even huger.

Besides, where was she anyway? Wherever she looked, she was facing the same sight again and yet again: shades of orange, yellow, and red, flickering at their feast, narrowing the circle.

Sweat was dripping down her forehead. Her body seemed to melt in the heat. Her breathing was speeding up. Soon she wouldn't be able to breath anymore. Soon it'd all be over.

No matter how much she tried to make every endeavor, she wasn't able to orient herself. On her left there was a shelf crashing down, and the blaze immediately savaged it like a ravenous wolf pack attacking a prostrated sheep.

On her right she heard splintering glass – and a thud. Maybe that were the firemen? Where they coming for her? Were they able to find her in time, or would she shortly be hit by multiple jets of water that pushed her right into the fire?

Opening her mouth she wanted to cry out, but there was no sound coming out, not even a faint croak. She was doomed.

Percy. She wanted to see Percy.

Her vision blurred, and she fell into a fit of coughing.

Her head felt like exploding every minute, and for a second she thought she caught glimpse of someone standing amid the flames.

She tumbled towards it, wobbly and dizzy. This fire was enormous. And it seemed to limit her perception, confusing her mind, since it couldn't be possible what she was seeing.

At first she believed to see Percy. But whatever just prevented her head from hitting the ground could impossibly be human. Because a human being was not capable of walking through fire. A human couldn't make the flames open the way for them. A human didn't have the ability to shoot plasma beams from their hands. And much less, not under any circumstances, was a human being able to fly. Without any sort of flying machine. Just like that.

Her head was buzzing. Everything was spinning. Her lungs were burning. Her body was screaming for water.

She noticed being high up in the air and landing on some roof. Gently, she was set down and kept from collapsing.

Slowly, she sank to the ground, and found herself lying on her back, eyes directed at the stars above. They were hard to see though, what with the lights of the city hovering underneath the sky, making it hard to look through the dim layer.

After the world had almost stopped spinning after some minutes, she tried sitting up. Straight away, she began to feel lightheaded again, so dizzy she was nearly blacking out.

Furthermore, she had to be hallucinating. Because how else should she explain the scene in front of her?

In the middle of the roof there were two people facing each other. One of them was the odd young man in black from the library. His hat had been blown from his head, now laying a few yards away from him, which made his close-cropped black hair visible (honestly, did that guy even wear black underwear?). His uncovered eye was glaring at his opponent and he had his fists clenched.

The other person was about as tall as the black guy. He was wearing some kind of dark whole-body spandex and a mask; she couldn't make out more. When he spoke, his voice sounded oddly distorted.

"Just tell me where he's hiding!"

"Of course," the black guy answered, his voice full of sarcasm. "Just after you took off your mask."

"You go first."

The guy in black growled, almost like a pit bull. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Oh, the eye patch is real?" spandex-guy asked in faked surprise. "I always thought you like playing pirate."

That made the other guy even more furious. He pulled something out from under his coat and pointed it at spandex-guy, something slightly shiny in the dim light – a gun.

"One wrong word and I gun you down."

Spandex-guy laughed loudly and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Sure. Since it'd incredibly please your boss if someone took that opportunity for him. Besides – ," he tapped the suit on his upper arm, "bulletproof. Even with an MG3 you couldn't hurt me."

The black guy didn't seem to buy that, and pulled the trigger. Annabeth winced at the sound and instinctively ducked her head. But spandex-guy was still standing like before; he pretended to wipe off dust from his chest.

"Somebody seems to have some defiance issues."

"That's rich, coming from you!" the guy in black countered.

"Shut up, Nakamura, and eat your baby food."

The guy in black – Nakamura – perplexedly knit his brows.

"Don't act so surprised. I know my enemies. I know who your mother is. I know where you left your right eye. I know who you are. Can you say that about me too?

Nakamura suddenly didn't seem eager to stay. His opponent's comment had unsettled him, and now he slowly backed up backwards to the door that led from the roof. Spandex-guy didn't do anything to stop him, which gave him the necessary security to spin around very quickly, bolt through the door, and slam it shut behind him.

As soon as he was gone, the other guy turned around to Annabeth and laughed.

"Idiot's thinking he can bottle me up here."

Something about this boy irritated Annabeth. But she could not with all the best will in the world tell what it was. Her vision became blurry again as she tried to concentrate, which made her wobble slightly on her feet. She quickly laid down again and closed her eyes.

"Everything okay?" His voice sounded concerned. Her ears began to ring, and all the noise around her – the faraway hum of traffic, the boy's voice repeatedly asking if she was okay – began to faint.

Suddenly she felt strong arms lifting her, heard a voice say her name. She took off again from the ground, and a strange pulling in her stomach let her assume that she was flying again, but she was too exhausted to open her eyes.

The last thing she remembers is strong arms letting go of her. She didn't want that. She wanted him to hold her. For some reason she felt safe with him.

But he didn't come back, and she slipped away from her consciousness.

* * *

 **Um.. I'm nervous. How did you like it? Please let me know if you want to read on. Then I can decide whether the rest of this is worth translating, since it needs some time...**

 **So I'm already sorry for eventual late updates. But on Thursday vacation officially starts here, so maybe I will find time to update soon. There is always some space for hope. :D**

 **Have some blue cookies :***


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